The Hindu : New Delhi News : Where phones keep ringing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 06, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Where phones keep ringing

Staff Reporter

The new tele-counselling facility at Delhi University

NEW DELHI: Even as sale and receipt of common pre-admission forms and information bulletins of Delhi University continue, the phones at the office of the Dean of Students' Welfare have not stopped ringing ever since the tele-counselling facility was launched on June 1.

Four student counsellors, under the guidance of Deputy Dean of Students' Welfare Gurpreet Singh Tuteja, man the telephone lines -- 27667092 and 27667725 -- from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. They answer different queries ranging from students who have been placed under compartment in their Class XII examination to anxious parents wanting to know the future prospects of different courses.

"We get a lot of calls from parents and sometimes we have to counsel them as well. There are times when they do not even let their wards speak to us. We tell them that they must allow the students to study what they are interested in. Once we got a call from a parent whose child has just entered Class XII this year and who wanted to know which courses the child could opt for in 2008!" said Ishneet Chawla, one of the student counsellors.

"Students who have got compartment want to know if they can apply to Delhi University or not. There are queries about the announcement of cut-off lists as well as different entrance examinations and how to prepare for them," she adds.

Her fellow counsellor, Nitin Abbey, said instead of giving suggestions to callers, they provide them with information about different options available to them.

"There were queries from some Commerce students who wanted to know how they could manage the classes for both B. Com. and Chartered Accountant programmes together. I told them that since the University was very particular about attendance, they could study B. Com. through correspondence while doing their regular CA," he said.

Most of the calls are from outstation students, said the counsellors, who want to know about the hostel facilities on the campus and whether their marks would be deducted at the time of admission on account of having studied under State boards

"One of the most frequently asked questions by outstation students is if they will lose some marks since they are not affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education. The University gives equal weightage to all recognised boards in the country but not many are aware of it," informed Ishneet.

"Open Days"

The student counsellors who also took part in the "Open Days" conducted by the University this year underwent a 15-day training programme organised by the office of the Dean, Students' Welfare to help them prepare for tele-counselling sessions.

Apart from the regular queries, there are often some "silly" questions that the counsellors are forced to deal with.

Citing an example, Nitin said: "The other day a father of a young girl called me up saying that he planned to get her married in the next two years and wanted to know if a B.A. (Honours) English would improve her spoken English."

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